hand-colored look

Grainy · January 13, 2006

Hi all -- I did a search and was surprized to find nothign on this (maybe used the wrong keywords). I'm wondering if anyone has tried in post to replicate the hand-colored look (not just tinted a single color) like you can see in the ball scene in "Phantom of the Opera" or more recently, in "Lumiere & Co" (the bit with the dancing woman I think was hand colored).

I'm thinking three or four colors, probably on top of a base tint.

Is this the kind of thing that can be done by computers these days, or is it something that can be only be done PAINSTAKINGLY by computers?

thanks much

Grainy

January 13, 2006

This effect can be achieved in Adobe After Effects, and probably in other compositing/effects packages too. Starting with a color original, one would desaturate the clip, then put a solid layer of sepia (or other color) on top of that with a transfer mode that allows it to create a subtle base tint over the clip. Additional layers would be created containing animated masks to create the colored elements, again, with a transfer mode applied to the layer to allow the color to affect the layers underneath. Depending upon the complexity of the masks and the keyframing involved, this could be a very time consuming job, but the technique is fairly straightforward.